Clothespin receptacle

ABSTRACT

A wipe-clean plastic clothespin receptacle adapted to contain both clothespins and small articles of clothing, and provided with an adjustable tilt support handle adapted to hook over and slide along the user&#39;&#39;s clothesline.

United States Patent Primary Examiner-Donald F. Norton Attorney-Marion E. Shafer ABSTRACT: A wipe-clean plastic clo thespin receptacle adapted tocontain both Clothespins and small articles of clothing, and provided with an adjustable tilt support handle adapted to hook over and slide along the user's clothesline.

Inventor Mallia Ross 4207-A Ave. l-L, Austin, Tex. 78751 Appl. No. 841,887 Filed July 15, 1969 Patented Dec. 28, 1971 CLOTHESPIN RECEPTACLE 1 Claim, 9 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl 150/ 1.8, 150/48 Int. Cl. 865d 1/38, 865d 25/32 Field ofSearch ..150/1.8,48, 50'; 220/91 PATENIED umslsn 3; 630.251

MALLIA Ross,

INVENTOR.

WW Z 5% ATTORNEY PATENTEDUECZBISYI v 3 530,251

SHEET 2 OF 2 MALLIA ROSS,

INVENTOR.

ATTORNEY CLO'IIIESPIN RECEPTACLE SUBJECT MATTER OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to improvements in clothespin containers and more particularly it relates to an improved clothespin container provided with an adjustable support means that will permit the container to be slidably hung from a clothesline and to support the clothespin container at an adjustable convenient angle during usage.

PRIOR ART There have been a variety of commercial efforts to provide the market with clothespin bags or clothespin containers that could be hung on the clothesline and slip along the'clothesline to provide ready and convenient access to a supply of clothespins as required in hanging out laundry to dry. Clothespin baskets enjoy brief recurrent periodsof popularity from time to time because on first impression they appear to provide both aconvenient place for clothespins anda convenient carrying receptacle in which small quantities of laundry or lingerie may be carried to the clothesline with the clothespins. The appearances are more apparent than real and fairly soon enlighten experience discloses that woven baskets accumulate dustand other foreign particles in the crevices in such baskets which cannot be wiped or washed out but which are readily able to transfer stain marks to wet clothes subsequently carried in such clothespin baskets.

One of the earlier efforts to provide a convenient clothespin receptacle took the form' of a cloth clothespin bag with a circular wire hook secured in the mouth of the bag to hold the bag open and thereby provide more convenient access to a user reaching into the bag to remove or return clothespins. Said clothespin bags were provided with a wire hook handle that hooked over the clothesline to provide support. Clothespin bags are inevitably forgotten and, sooner rather than later, are left hanging exposed on'the clothesline through periods of rain and bad weather with the result that such cloth bags eventually become dingy and mold. Clothespins in the bottom of the bag are usually difficult to reach or find and the clothespin bag. does not readily lend itself to serving as a receptacle for carrying both clothespins and small quantities of laundry or lingerie. Despite these difficulties and limitations the cloth clothespin bag is relatively inexpensive and easily replaced when it becomes excessively soiled or molded with the result that the 'old dingy clothespin bag has outlasted all rival efforts to produce a commercial clothespin container.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION It is, therefore, a primary object of this invention to provide a neat, presentable plastic clothespin. container that can be easily wiped clean and that will be reasonably weatherproof.

An object of the invention is to provide a clothespin container of sufficient size and shape as to-provide a convenient means for carrying both clothespins and a small quantity of laundry or lingerie in a convenient manner.

Another object of the invention is-to provide a clothespin container with a support bail or handle adapted to hook over the clothesline in such-a manner that it may be advanced along the clothesline asthe laundress proceeds with the business of hanging or taking in her articles of'laundry.

Another object of the invention is to provide a bail or handle means connected to the clothespin container in such manner that the clothespin container can be carried vertically with convenience when being transported to and from the clothesline.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a clothespin container having an adjustable or repositionable bail support means that can be readjusted to permit said clothespin container to be hung from the clothesline at a variety of angles to provide visibility and convenient access to the clothespins and articles of laundry stored in said clothespin container.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent through consideration of the following description and appended claims in conjunction with the attached drawings in'which:

DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is aperspective view of the inventors improved clothespin container showing the device hanging from a clothesline with the bail means so positioned as to cause the open mouth of the clothespin container to tilt outward for easy access to the clothespins in the container.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary planned view of one of the end panels of said clothespin container showing the configuration of the bail-positioning slot.

, FIG. 3 is a perspective view of one of the possible alternative means of slidably and pivotally connecting the support bail to said clothespin container.

FIG. 4 is a front edge view of the connection means shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a further alternative means of slidably and pivotally connecting said bail means to the clothespin container.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a still further alternative meansof slidably and pivotally connecting said bail means to the improved clothespin container.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the improved clothespin container withthe bail support means connected between diagonal bail pivot points.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the improved clothespin container with the bail support means connected between the middle pivot points to permit said clothespin container to hang in vertical position for convenient carrying to and from the clothesline.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the improved clothespin container in one of its alternative tilted positions adapted to provide easy access to the clothespins therein.

In describing one selected form or preferred embodiment of this invention as shown in the drawings and described in this specification, specific terms and components are used for clarity; However, it is not intended to limit the claimed invention to the specific form, components, or construction shown and it is to be understood that the specific terms used in this illustration of the invention are intended to include all technical equivalents which operate in a'similar manner to accomplish a similar purpose.

DETAILED'DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF INVENTION Referring to the specific embodiment of the invention selected for illustration in the accompanying drawings, the number 11 refers to the overall container structure composed of a front side panel 12, back side panel 13, and end panels 14 and 15. There is a bottom panel which is not visible in the drawings and the upper mouth area of said container is completely open to provide easy access to clothespins and other articles stored in said container. For convenience in carrying and using the device said container should be of a generally rectangular configuration as shown in FIGS. 1, 8 and 9 with the front and back panels 12 and 13 being somewhat longer than end panels 14 and 15 so that the container has somewhat greater width than thickness. The overall height of the container should probably be no greater than the width of side panels 12 and 13. Excessive depth will create difficulty in reaching clothespins and objects in the bottom of the containenAt their maximum points, end panels 14 and 15 should be somewhat higher than the height of the front and back panels 12 and I3. The configuration illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 by which end panels 14 and 15 are cut down slightly as they approach the comers of the container and the upper center edges of front and back panels 12 and 13 are cut down somewhat further asshown-in FIG. 1 and FIG. 7 of the drawings herein enhance the presentability and appearance of the container but said configuration also contributes to the effective opening or widening of the mouth area of the container which will be of some importance when the user attempts to find and remove objects from the bottom of said container.

Said clothespin container 11 should be fabricated from a resilient but otherwise fairly rigid smooth plastic material and it is especially important that all of the interior surfaces of clothespin container 11 should be of such smoothness as to facilitate the user's being able to wipe the interior of said container clean with a damp cloth with no more than a few strokes of said damp cloth. Sharp comers and crevices should be avoided in fabricating the interior of said container in order to preclude the accumulation of dust and contaminate materials in such comers and crevices that could contribute to staining 'damp clothes and might be carried in said clothespin container with the clothespins.

Since it is inevitable that from time to time damp articles of clothing will be forgotten and left in the container, and since on occasion the container will be inadvertently left hangingon the clothesline for 2 to 3 days at a time it is vitally important to provide an escape means for any moisture that may be stored in the forgotten articles of clothing or that may enter the container as a result of rain occurring while the container has been lefthanging on the line. Radical dampness in clothespin containers for any period of time leads to the development of fungus and mold which produces stains and odor in the user's clothing and it is usually quite difficult to get such mold out of both the clothespin container and the clothing once such mold has started. The large open mouth provided by the selected configuration of clothespin container 11 as illustrated in FIG. 1 of the drawings provides ventilation through the top of said clothespin container but will not prevent mold from developing in damp clothes that may be left in said container or in moisture that may collect under clothes left in the clothespin container. Therefore, a plurality of ventilation and drainage apertures 17-17-17 should be provided at various places in front panel 12, back panel 13, opposite end panels 14 and 15 and in the bottom of the container.

Bail support means 18 has two conventional parallel arms 18-18 that extend down to connect to appropriate points on the upper part of end panels 14 and 15 of clothespin container 11 while the upper part of bail support means 18 folds over at points 19-19 to form a hook as illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 9 of the drawings. Said hook 19-19 in bail support means 18 pennits said bail support means to be hooked over clothesline 20. Said bail support means 18 provides a convenient carrying handle for the clothespin container and when the hook portion 19-19 of said bail support means is hung upon a clothesline as shown in the drawings said clothespin container can easily be slid along clothesline 20 by the laundress as articles of clothing are hung out and the user advances to other parts of the clothesline. Support bail adapted to hook over and to slide along clothesline have been in use for some time and a variety of ways have been devised for fabricating said hooks. The drawings herein, therefore, illustrate only a simple bail with a hook adapted to slidably support said bail from a clothesline and no effort is made to claim this particular subitem as unique or to commend to any potential manufacturer a particular form of bail hook. The invention contemplates any appropriate bail with hook means adapted to be suspended from a conventional clothesline and to slide along said clothesline.

One of the primary objects, however, of this invention is to provide a suitable means of pivotally connecting bail support means 18-18 to clothespin container structure 11 in such a manner as to allow clothespin container 11 to be supported and carried vertically as shown in FIG. 8 or to permit said clothespin container 11 to be supported at a tilt or angle as illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 9 thereby providing the user with better access to the clothespins and objects stored in said clothespin container. The inventor has attempted to accomplish this purpose by cutting a special bail-positioning slot 21 in the upper portion of end panels 14 and I5 and providing a plurality of at least threeor more bail pivot points 22-23-24 as said slots and bail-positioning pivot points are illustrated in FIG. 1 and in FIG. 2 of the drawing herein. Said spaced-apart bail-positioning pivot points are numbered 22, 23, and 24 in end panel 14 and for clarity are numbered 22', 23', and 24' in the opposite end panel 15. The preferredconfiguration for rail positioning slot 21 and the shape of slightly enlarged bail-positioning pivot points 22, 23 and 24 will be readily apparent from an examination of FIG. 2 of the drawings. The points intended to serve as bail-positioning points are slightly enlarged so that the crossmember of the bail hook will tend to remain fixed at one of these pivot points once the bail is pushed into position in said pivot point openings. It should also be readily apparent that the shape of bail-positioning slot 21 could be altered and that the number of bail-positioning points could be increased or decreased without departing from the spirit and intentions of the invention. The inventors test prototype employed three bail-positioning pivot points as illustrated in FIG. 2 of the drawings and the inventor prefers and recommends the employment of at least three bail-positioning pivot points but does not regard the invention as being critically dependent upon the exact number of bail-positioning points provided.

Bail support means 18-18 must be pivotally connected to each end of clothespin container 11 but in this instance the bail must not only be pivotally connected but the means of pivotal connection selected must be capable of being slid along bail-positioning slot 21 from one to the other of one of the several spaced-apart bail positioning pivot points. Since slot 21 is fairly large compared to the diameter of the wire from which bail 18 would ordinarily be fabricated, ordinary bail hooks would tend to slip out of the slots 21-21 unless special precautions'are taken. To overcome this tendency and inconvenience the inventor has devised a bail connection means, illustrated in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 of the drawings herein, by which he has spiral wound inside stop means 25 on one end of bail l8 and has continued said wire extension to spiral wind a second outside stop means 26 at a small spaced-apart distance from first stop means 25 with cross member 27 connecting inside stop means 25 and outside stop means 26 together. The bail hook is therefore composed of inside stop means 25, crossmember 27, and outside stop means 26 but there are a variety of ways in which this bail hook may be fabricated. I

The form of bail hook illustrated in FIG. 3 is quite efficient and may with modest expense be executed with a union bolt structure provided with parallel inside and outside shoulders but the Inventor encountered difficulties trying to build a jig that would enable him to spiral wind inside and outside stop means 25 and 26 from the same piece of continuous wire.

In FIG. 6 of the drawings the inventor illustrates an alternative bail hook possibility whereby inside stop means 28 takes the form of a crimped shoulder in the wire from which bail 18 is fabricated which then extends on to connect with spiral wound outside stop means 29. This alternate bail hook structure may prove to be the simplest and easiest to fabricate but inside stop shoulder 28 has some tendency to slip through bail positioning slot 21 in certain positions. This produces minor momentary inconvenience while the bail is readjusted, but even under such circumstances bail l8 slips through slot 21 from the inside to the outside so that the bail is still engaged to clothespin container 11. Since outside stop means 29 is too large to work back through bail slot 21 in the opposite direction there is no danger of the bail getting disconnected from clothespin container 11 and being lost.

Perhaps the more practical alternative structure for providing a bail hook for use with clothespin container 11 would be to extend bail wire 18 to form an inside stop means loop 30, an outside stop means loop 31 with the inside and outside stop means loops being interconnected by crossmember 32 as illustrated in FIG. 5 of the drawings herein. This last alternate bail hook structure works almost as successfully as the structure illustrated in FIG. 3 but is much easier to fabricate with the aid of a handmade jig than is the structure illustrated in FIG. 3.

OPERATION By examining FIG. 8 of the drawings it will be readily apparent that if bail support means l818 is interconnected between bail positioning pivot point 23'23 that clothespin container 11 will hang straight down and that this will be the most convenient position for hand carrying said container to and from the clothesline. Once the device is hung on the clothesline and the user is ready to remove clothespins and small articles of laundered clothing from the receptacle it will be more convenient to slide the pivotal hooks on bail support means l8--l8 along bail-positioning slot 21 until the bail hooks come to rest in pivot points 24-24 as shown in FIG. 1 or alternately come to rest in pivot points 22-22 as shown in FIG. 9 which will cause the container to tilt outward toward the user and will provide the user with convenient and easy access to the interior of said clothespin container. The choice of pivot points will depend upon which side of the line the user is standing and in which direction the user wants said clothespin container 11 to tilt.

In some circumstances the user of the container will want to be able to manually tilt the container to an extreme position to cause all of the clothespins or small objects to slide to one corner of the container for easy access or will want to be able to see into the container in order to search for a particular item in the bottom of said container. In such instances it may be more convenient to interconnect bail hooks 18-18 between diagonal pivot points such as from pivot point 24 to pivot point 22' as illustrated in FIG. 7 of the drawings. By suspending clothespin container 11 from diagonal pivot points as just described and as illustrated in FIG. 7 the user has the convenience of being able to tilt the container to a point where the user can easily see into the container by simply touching one of the unsupported corners of said clothespin container ll, while accidental spilling of articles from the clothespin container will be prevented by virtue of said container automatically returning itself to a vertical position each time it is released. With actual experience with such a container provided with a plurality of pivot points each user will quickly work out the choice of alternate pivot point positions and resulting angles of tilt of said container 11 that prove most convenient for the particular user.

ADVANTAGES In the foregoing description of the structure and operation of the invention set forth herein a number of advantages have been claimed for the apparatus and others will be readily apparent to persons skilled in the art. A material advantage of the invention is that it provides a neat, presentable plastic clothespin container that can be easily wiped clean, that is reasonably weatherproof and that will resist dinginess and mold.

An advantage of the improved clothespin container described herein is that it is of sufficient size and shape to provide a convenient means for carrying both clothespins and a small quantity of laundry or lingerie in a convenient manner.

Another advantage of the invention is that is provides a clothespin container with a support bail or handle adapted to hook over clotheslines in such a manner that said clothespin container may be advanced along the clothesline as the laun- 1 dress proceeds with the business of hanging or taking in her articles of laundry.

Another advantage of the invention is that it provides a conveniently shaped clothespin container that is provided with an adjustable support bail or handle means connected to the clothespin container in such manner that the clothespin container can be carried vertically with convenience when being transported to and from the clothesline.

Still another material advantage of the invention is that it provides a clothespin container having an adjustable or repositionable bail support means that can be readjusted to tilt said clothespin container to hang from the clothesline at variety of angles to provide visibility and convenient access to the clothespins and articles of laundry stored in said clothespin container. Although this specification describes but a single embodiment of the invention with certain applications thereof, it should be understood that structural or material rearrangement of adequate or equivalent parts, substitutions of equivalent functional elements and other modifications in structure can be made and other applications devised without departing from the spirit and the scope of my invention. 1, therefore, desire that the description and drawings herein be regarded only as an illustration of my invention and that the invention be regarded as limited only as set forth in the following claims, or as required by the prior art.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. An improved clothespin container comprising:

A. a generally rectangular container fabricated from a smooth, semirigid plastic material having 1. an open mouth area at the top of said container 2. greater width than thickness,

3. overall height approximately equal to the width of the container,

4. smooth interior surfaces capable of being wiped clean with a damp cloth,

5. a plurality of drainage apertures in the bottom and each of the sides of the container and 6. openings in the upper portion of the two end panels adapted to receive a bail support means;

B. bail support means adapted to hook over and slide along a clothesline; and

C. said bail support means being pivotally connected to said clothespin container;

D. said openings comprising a bail-positioning slot cut into the upper portion of the opposite end panels;

E. a plurality of at least three spaced-apart bail-positioning pivot points;

F. slidable means of connecting the pivotally connected bail support means to the clothespin container so that said bail can be repositioned between various pivot points to permit said clothespin container to depend from said bail at any one of a plurality of angles including vertical.

IF I t 

1. An improved clothespin container comprising: A. a generally rectangular container fabricated from a smooth, semirigid plastic material having
 1. an open mouth area at the top of said container
 2. greater width than thickness,
 3. overall height approximately equal to the width of the container,
 4. smooth interior surfaces capable of being wiped clean with a damp cloth,
 5. a plurality of drainage apertures in the bottom and each of the sides of the container, and
 6. openings in the upper portion of the two end panels adapted to receive a bail support means; B. bail support means adapted to hook over and slide along a clothesline; and C. said bail support means being pivotally connected to said clothespin container; D. said openings comprising a bail-positioning slot cut into the upper portion of the opposite end panels; E. a plurality of at least three spaced-apart bail-positioning pivot points; F. slidable means of connecting the pivotally connected bail support means to the clothespin container so that said bail can be repositioned between various pivot points to permit said clothespin container to depend from said bail at any one of a plurality of angles including vertical.
 2. greater width than thickness,
 3. overall height approximately equal to the width of the container,
 4. smooth interior surfaces capable of being wiped clean with a damp cloth,
 5. a plurality of drainage apertures in the bottom and each of the sides of the container, and
 6. openings in the upper portion of the two end panels adapted to receive a bail support means; B. bail support means adapted to hook over and slide along a clothesline; and C. said bail support means being pivotally connected to said clothespin container; D. said openings comprising a bail-positioning slot cut into the upper portion of the opposite end panels; E. a plurality of at least three spaced-apart bail-positioning pivot points; F. slidable means of connecting the pivotally connected bail support means to the clothespin container so that said bail can be repositioned between various pivot points to permit said clothespin container to depend from said bail at any one of a plurality of angles including vertical. 